I've been thinking over the past few weeks as I start to wind things down here in Cincinnati. I'm going to have some extra time on my hands, becoming a short-term stay-at-home-dad; there's a need to keep some sort of productive goal so I don't get swallowed up in tending house and child rearing. One of the ideas I've been tossing around has been to take my interest in urban planning and try to apply something to the Walt Disney World resort areas.
3 out of 4 parks are either going through a big update (Animal Kingdom), have gone through an update recently (Magic Kingdom), or is in the process of having one planned (whatever Hollywood Studios is going to be called). So why is it that EPCOT is a bit of the red-headed step child in this group? In the annals of Disney theme park history, there's so much story to the idea of EPCOT. It's really hard to list all the wonderful background behind WDW's second park.
So... Let's build a better EPCOT. A lot of us in the Disney parks community have dreamed of being in a position of an Imagineer and build a park from the ground up. Many of us would love to fix something that was most beloved and bring it back to it's former splendor. Let's be honest here... EPCOT hasn't been the park we loved for quite some time now. Many of the beloved attractions have been removed or rendered silly by time, neglect, and the Disney profit grab. It's time to put those dreams together and make up a better EPCOT.
I'm asking for your input on this. What makes EPCOT magical? What makes EPCOT a wonderful theme park? What makes EPCOT a good money maker for Disney? Let's not take the easy way out and just add tons of E-Ticket attractions or get away from the story that this park was trying to tell in the first place. I'm proposing that we redesign EPCOT not only be a theme park that churns guests and makes money, but to also go back to Walt's dream of Progress City and the vision that EPCOT once was when it first opened? Who's with me?
I've got some ideas for what I'd love to see happen with EPCOT. I imagine that there are quite a few other people that have great ideas too. So... leave some feedback, either here or through Twitter (@enlaycock), or even my Facebook page. I know that there's quite a few of my Disney Twitter pals that already have some projects or ideas on paper (ahem @wesleymjames). I'm hoping to have some time in the next few weeks to post a couple high level ideas and I'd love to know your thoughts about them. So... follow along. Let's pretend that Bob Iger has given us a blank check and slate and that our budget is only as wide as our imagination is. This is going to be fun.
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